Chip Kidd's Advice

Of the three readings, which were all quite interesting and gave useful information when designing book covers, I found the Chip Kidd interview to be the most helpful. I'd like to bring up his answer to the last question first. When asked if one should judge a book by its cover, he replied, "Oh, go ahead." This was interesting to me because as a book jacket designer, he must have read a ton of books that he enjoyed that he thought had poor covers. However, it reveals something greater about his approach to designing a cover that he reveals earlier in the interview. He explains how he tries to 'subvert' a genre. When redesigning Minority Report he said, "I didn't want it to look like "science fiction," but it should still look appropriate for the subject matter." I'm not so sure what to think about this because as someone who thinks books can be judged by their covers, wouldn't he like someone who is looking for a science fiction novel be able to tell that Minority Report is a science fiction novel? Though he does also offer that covers should be interesting and appeal to the masses. So possibly, one trumps the other depending on the circumstances.

As for me, designing The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, this creates an interesting complex. The book is so popular, that it would sell no matter what the cover looks like. But do I take its popularity into consideration when designing the cover? Should I apply to the masses, or elude to the book's content?